Local foundry equipment manufacturer Lauds Foundry Equipment has formed a strategic partnership with US vibratory and rotary equipment manufacturer General Kinematics Corporation.

General Kinematics (GK) was established in 1960 by Albert Musschoot to market, design and custom fabricate vibratory handling and processing equipment for the processing of bulk materials. Currently headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA, GK operates from a 220,000 square foot facility and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of vibratory processing equipment from vibratory feeders to entire process systems.

Today GK holds more than 200 worldwide patents, and is acknowledged as a major contributor to the technical advancement of vibrating and rotary equipment design and application. Over 50,000 General Kinematics units have been installed in virtually all of the world’s industrialised countries.

The company also has locations in Germany, the UK, China and India. GKC provides a full range of custom engineered vibrating material handling and processing equipment including feeders, conveyors, screeners, fluid bed heat transfer units, vibrating drums, high frequency shakeouts and specialised recycling equipment.

In short GK specialises in vibrating equipment and solutions for bulk processing of material in the foundry, recycling, scrap, mining, minerals, food, chemical, and wood industries. Each piece of GK equipment is custom engineered to client specifications to meet the client’s process objectives.

“We have signed an agreement with General Kinematics to market their equipment and solutions to companies in all these industries in Africa. Our sister company Lauds Foundry Equipment GmbH will be marketing their equipment in certain parts of Europe and the surrounding countries, basically where GK is not yet represented or has a presence,” said Kevin van Niekerk MD of Lauds Foundry Equipment.

“The type of equipment that GK manufactures will compliment the range of equipment that we manufacture in South Africa, or in Germany at Lauds Foundry Equipment GmbH.”

“These days manufacturers such as foundries or processing companies such as recyclers are looking for a turnkey solution to their capex improvements and investments. We can now offer a large portion of their requirements, and the complete solution in most cases.”

Lauds Foundry Equipment GmbH’s partnership with Foseco India
Meanwhile the German operation of Lauds Foundry Equipment, LFE GmbH, which was established early in 2014 to access the European market directly and easily, has signed an agreement with Foseco India, effective October 2015.

Foseco India will in future market LFE’s foundry equipment in India, South East Asia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“Incorporating a manufacturing division in Germany, who are able to manufacture exactly what we do in RSA, has doubled our capacity, enabling us to manufacture on both continents on the same project if so required. We have a 3 000m² state of the art facility, which includes a machine shop, a design team and fabrication.”

“Even though LFE GmbH has a relatively short history, the company has been making inroads and we have supplied equipment into Russia, Slovenia and Turkey.”

UK market
“Currently we are exploring the options to have a presence in the UK. We believe that there are many opportunities in that region, and foundries would welcome equipment manufactured to European quality standards, but at a fraction of the cost compared to what is currently available. Our exchange rate is very favourable and we need to take advantage of that.”

“Our strategy is to explore all these markets even though we are still very active in South Africa. We want to grow the company both locally and internationally, while at the same time improving the design and efficiencies of equipment. You will only acquire this expertise if you are exposed to the international markets.”

South Africa and global partners
“Additionally, we continue our mutually beneficial arrangements with our global partners whereby we import, sell and service their equipment and systems locally. These include Pourtech AB of Germany who provide automated pouring solutions, Siapro of Slovenia, a company that manufactures shotblast equipment, Indemak of Turkey who supply us with furnaces, and Polish company Adjatech.”

“We have also developed a patented secondary reclamation unit for the sand foundries. The unit, which is 100% locally designed and manufactured, only requires 15kW power consumption (5 ton per hour) and can be added to any primary reclamation system. Our tests on a pilot setup at a local university are showing that you can achieve up to 30% reduction in L.O.I.”

“We have also just recently won an order to manufacture and supply primary and secondary reclamation units to Thos Begbie.”